Maths needs solid foundation in early years

THE EDITOR, Madam:

I would like to make two observations in relation to the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate exam maths results.

The first is that mathematics requires a solid foundation to be laid in the early years of primary schooling. The current curriculum does not allow for this to happen, as it is overloaded and the teachers have to rush through it so as to cover material assessed in PEP. The new National Standards Curriculum was designed “to place emphasis on project-based and problem-solving learning, allowing the learners to have hands-on experiences that are similar to real-world situations, making the learning experience less abstract and more concrete”. However, these desirable approaches are time-consuming, and employing them does not allow for the curriculum to be completed. Wouldn’t it make more sense to cut the curriculum and build the necessary foundation?

My second observation is that most of the students currently in grades four to 11 were denied face-to-face teaching duringthe COVID-19 pandemic. Although there were online classes, some students had no access to them. Others had access but had no supervision and were distracted from classes by browsing more interesting information online. They effectively missed out on learning maths concepts that they would need later. Perhaps more hours of maths classes can make up for the loss, but, for this year’s Grade 11, it will probably be too late.

HELEN WILLIAMS